over and interrupted me.” He shook his head, lowered himself to his knees in front of her, grabbed her hands and squeezed. “Last night was real. Everything I said, the way I felt, were all true. I swear to you. I want nothing more than to talk to you about this right now, but I have to go. Please tell me you’ll wait.”
“Ja—Jett … what do I even call you?”
“Whatever you want, Sas.”
She shook her head. A knock sounded.
“Fifteen minutes. No pressure … sorry,” Aiden called.
“You should start getting dressed.” She looked down at their hands.
“Will you be here when I get back, Kansas?”
“I-I don’t know.”
His heart dropped. Time was running down, and she was noncommittal. “Kansas.”
“I’m not the lying type, Jett. Best I can give you is a promise to think it through completely.” She slipped her hands free.
He ran a hand through his hair. “Okay … fair enough.”
She sighed. “Go get in the shower. I’m not going anywhere.”
“Thank you!” He sprang up from the floor, did a mad dash to the bathroom, slid across the smooth floor, started up the shower and jumped in. The freezing cold water took care of his morning wood. A quick soap down later he toweled off his wet body, and ran into the room. The sight of a fresh pair of jeans, mid-sleeved green shirt, boxer, socks, and shoes lined up at the end of the bed gave him hope.
“You are amazing!”
“Yeah, I know.” She managed a shaky smile. Still wrapped in the bed sheets she looked uncertain and shy. He’d damaged the instant connection they had, but he knew it could be fixed. Dressed in two minutes flat, he pilfered a kiss, taking her by surprise. Her eyes went wide, but she responded with the same passion from the night before.
“To help you decide.” He ran for the door, pulling on his shoes, and allowed himself one glance back before he walked out the door. Aiden waited, leaned against the opposite wall.
“Dude, what the hell?”
“I know, I’m sorry.”
“Forget about the oversleeping.” Aiden waved toward the door with his massive hand. At six foot five, Aiden towered over everyone who wasn’t a professional athlete. “What was that? Slumming at a con? How is that going to help your situation any? If the press got a hold of it—”
“Hey!”
Aiden’s hazel eyes went wide.
“That was not slumming.”
“So you knew someone in town and just never bothered to mention it?”
“No, we meet last night, but there was … a bond.” He waved his hands wildly in the air. “This spark ignited, and things happened. I mean I talked to her all last night, and we just hit it off. She’s amazing. Funny, intelligent … southern.” He tilted his head as he spoke the last word, and Aiden rolled his eyes.
“We both know how girls can appear to be what they think we want. Fans are crazy.”
“No, she didn’t know who I was, thought I was a Cosplayer.”
“No wonder she looked horrified and shocked.”
“Yeah, that’s putting it nicely.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know. I’m hoping she’ll be there when we get back.”